“The very same.”

“I wasn’t expecting to see you here.”

“Just got in last week.” He pulled a head of cabbage from the bag and set it on the kitchen counter. “I wanted to see your place here, and Poppy, of course. When she called and asked if I could come out, I booked the first flight.”

“It’s great you’re buying the house in Milwaukee. My parents would have loved that.”

“Yeah, so about that—”

Before he could say more, Noah emerged from the bedroom. “You’re here!”

Poppy gave him a fist bump followed by a warm hug—nothing like the cold shoulder Ann had received.

“Hey, man.” Noah’s face was lit with a smile. Hey, man. Since when did he talk like that? What had Noah and Poppy done together? Did they get high? Listen to Bob Marley? Chant? So, they were buddies now. Poppy could just sashay into his life and fist-bump her way into his heart.

“This is Brad,” Poppy said. “He’s the guy I told you about.”

“Your boyfriend,” Noah said teasingly.

For someone so natural and easy, Poppy seemed oddly thrown off by the word “boyfriend.” “Yeah, I guess.”

Brad came up behind her, wrapped his arms around her waist, and kissed her on top of her head. There was no denying the chemistry between them. “You guess?”

“You know I don’t like labels.”

Ann thought of the dates she’d gone on over the years, the guys she’d imagined introducing Noah to. Aside from safe Kevin, they never measured up, never seemed worthy of the emotional trauma she might inflict on him. He was possessive of her, sensitive, needy. Ann envied the ease with which Poppy could bring a man into Noah’s life. Everything seemed easy for her. She was in Milwaukee, what, two months? And here she’d sold a home and met someone willing to travel halfway across the country just to see her. Now she and Noah were thick as thieves.

“No surfing for us tonight,” Poppy told Noah. “Rain coming in. How about I teach you tomorrow? OK if Brad joins us?”

“Yeah, sure.”

“You were going to surf?” Ann asked. “You never told me that. No way. It’s freezing. And aren’t there sharks?”

Noah rolled his eyes. “Mom, Poppy promised to teach me. A friend loaned her a wet suit for me to wear.”

“I’m down for surfing too,” Brad said. “I’ll fend off the great whites.”

It was obvious Ann was the only person who wasn’t invited to come along. “No.” She wasn’t about to let Noah get into surfing, but not because of the danger. She was worried that if he loved it, he’d disappear the same way Poppy had.